Being constant and relentless: our words matter

Way way back in my late teens and early twenties I served in the Territorial Army, 1 Squadron, NZ Scottish Regiment to be precise. We drove those M113 Armoured Personal Carriers. It wasn't all marching, in fact was a lot of fun. But soldiers were always 'marched' from one place to another. When in a more formal 'camp' situation an NCO would take command of the squad to march us from one place to another, and as NCOs we learned the skill of commanding a squad. 

Source: https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22712622

You would call out commands (obviously), like "'eft 'ight 'eft 'ight 'eft 'ight eeefffft" (that's quite difficult to write down phonetically, but you get the idea). You would also call out what might be called 'coaching commands' like "heads up, swing those arms straight through front to rear" and so on. If you didn't, then the marching could become quite slovenly, and the moment you did you could see the members of the squad up the ante, pick up their game, stand tall, and it often applied regardless of how experienced the squad members were. I'd hasten to add that when 'on parade', on the parade ground, it was different. You knew you had to put in your best effort then, otherwise you'd be answering to some towering Regimental Sergeant Major who would tear you limb from limb (figuratively speaking).

I think that in anything in life we all need that little bit of coaching to remind us what to do, regardless of how experienced we are. I was reminded of this recently. In my Acting Principal role I have spoken often about creativity, about it's importance, about its impact, about the need to take risks if we are to be creative, and about the need to model risk taking and creativity with our learners if we want them to be creative too. I've tried to model one way in which that might look with staff.

As this piece of my own mahi comes to an end, I received a lovely email from a colleague, in which they said this:

"Your reminders to be creative have reignited something I’d lost too and for that I’m grateful. The creativity had gotten lost in all the other stuff but it’s back and I’ll make sure it stays."

Working in schools is tiring and demanding, messy, and chaotic at times. It's easy to forget those things that perhaps brought us to the profession. It's easy to lose sight of the 'essential us'. We can lose them in the fog of busyness and fatigue. It's easy to forget the need to feed our own selves, to feed our own sense of creativity. Without that, it's hard to see how we could or would nurture creativity amongst our learners.

Source: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/creativity-in-school-education/80737187

One feature of my attempts at leadership has been to try to be deliberate and intentional, constant and relentless, in voicing what I think is important, about how I think we can make the biggest difference. Also I always try to keep the number of different messages as small as possible. You can't do it all at once. I hasten to add that I try to ensure that my views are evidence informed, not simply 'random reckons'. There may be a little too much of that in our profession at times.